Former owner takes paint business back over

By Christopher Thomas - christopher.thomas@JDNews.com

Published: Monday, July 14, 2014 at 12:01 PM.

For 40 years, Choate has seen Jacksonville, as well as the prevailing taste in color schemes for paint, change. Choate recalls burnt oranges, yellows and browns being the big sellers when he took over the business in the early 1970s to the more “subtle” colors like soft grays and muted greens that are in vogue today.

Choate says putting in more than 50 years in the paint business has given him an eye for color that few people, male or female, have.

“Obviously, (color) is our business,” Choate said. “Contrary to popular belief, a well-trained man can match colors as well as a woman can and can coordinate them just as well.

By 2012, C&S had 12 locations in North and South Carolina, but the effects of the most recent recession took its toll on business. Choate sold C&S to Travis Detter, Spectrum Paint’s owner, and relinquished his ownership of the business for approximately $2 million.

Spectrum owns more than 50 locations in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and both Carolinas.

Choate continued to work at the store between 2012 and 2014, working as regional manager for Spectrum Paint.

“When the economy turned down, it just to be too much to manage,” Choate said. “So, I finally wanted to quit, take it easy — and I found out that wasn’t what I really wanted to do.”

Ron Choate loves a challenge, and according to him, running a business in Jacksonville is a unique challenge that he’s embraced since 1972.

“Marketing yourself and your company is much more difficult than it used to be,” Choate said. “We’re blessed with having the Marine Corps here because it’s a good, steady base of income; but they rotate so you have to keep reintroducing yourself to clientele every 5 to 6 years.”

After a 2-and-a-half-year-long hiatus, Choate is, once again, the owner of C&S Paint on Doris Avenue in Jacksonville. He sold his business to a large paint seller from Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2012 but bought the business back from Spectrum Paint for $400,000 this summer.

C&S Paint was established in 1957, in part, by Choate’s father — Marvin Choate — as a home improvement shop where customers could buy paint, wallpaper and floor repair material.

Choate started working at his father’s business at age 13 as a stock boy, but moved his way up to owner less than a decade later.

Under his father’s tutelage, Choate said he learned how to match and blend colors as well as the key to keeping a business going: solid customer service.

“One of the most important things is you couldn’t sell what you didn’t have,” Choate said. “You have to figure out what your customers were looking for and make sure they had it when they needed it.”

For 40 years, Choate has seen Jacksonville, as well as the prevailing taste in color schemes for paint, change. Choate recalls burnt oranges, yellows and browns being the big sellers when he took over the business in the early 1970s to the more “subtle” colors like soft grays and muted greens that are in vogue today.

Choate says putting in more than 50 years in the paint business has given him an eye for color that few people, male or female, have.

“Obviously, (color) is our business,” Choate said. “Contrary to popular belief, a well-trained man can match colors as well as a woman can and can coordinate them just as well.

By 2012, C&S had 12 locations in North and South Carolina, but the effects of the most recent recession took its toll on business. Choate sold C&S to Travis Detter, Spectrum Paint’s owner, and relinquished his ownership of the business for approximately $2 million.

Spectrum owns more than 50 locations in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and both Carolinas.

Choate continued to work at the store between 2012 and 2014, working as regional manager for Spectrum Paint.

“When the economy turned down, it just to be too much to manage,” Choate said. “So, I finally wanted to quit, take it easy — and I found out that wasn’t what I really wanted to do.”

Victor Case, account manager for outside sales at C&S said the transition was a tough one in 2012, saying he felt the business’ personal, small town atmosphere was replaced by a “corporate world.” Case said the business lost its “personal touch.” But word soon spread that Choate had bought it back from Detter.

“A lot of customers called us to congratulate us for coming back in business,” Case said. “It was good to hear.”

Currently, C&S primarially sells paint, both to contractors and to individuals, and paint sales range from $13 per gallon to $80 per gallon, depending on the grade of paint purchased, according to Choate. One of their repeat customers is Roger Carroll of Southern Touch Painting in Jacksonville who said he was “very excited” when he heard Choate was back at the helm at C&S. Carroll said he’s known the Choate family his whole life and that he’s a second generation client at the store.

“I was excited, not only for the Onslow County community, but I was excited for (Choate),” Carroll said. “Seems like old times again.”

Though he’s still getting settled back into his former place, and though his store in Jacksonville is currently the only one in his name, Choate says he’s glad to be back in charge.

Choate says he hopes to add more stores in North Carolina along the coast before he decides to retire for good.